A relatively new, but very popular, watersport is known as wakeboarding. In wakeboarding, the rider secures the wakeboard to his or her feet through the use of bindings, which may include elastic straps or boots. One foot is secured in front of the other so that the rides typically stand sidewise on the board. The rider is then pulled behind a boat or other watercraft, in the same manner as a water-skiier, at such speeds that the wakeboard planes over the surface of the water.
Early wakeboards had a shape very similar to surfboards, with a pointed front end and a more squared back end. Modern wakeboards have eliminated the pointed front end in favor of two symmetrical squared ends. This allows the rider to reverse the orientation of the board with respect to the travel path while performing more complicated tricks during a ride.
To stabilize the board as it skims over the water, a fin is typically added to the underside of the board. The conventional wakeboard fin is a flat fin with a hydrodynamic shape that tapers upward from the underside of the board toward the end of the board. The fin also extends normal to the underside of the board.
On some boards, a second fin, of the same shape as the first, is added to the other end of the board from the first fin. The second fin is usually smaller than the first, and is used to stabilize the board when the rider has reversed the board and is riding the board "backwards," i.e. facing the opposite direction as he or she was initially.
However, conventional wakeboard fins are not entirely satisfactory. Additional stability of the board would make it easier for beginners to learn to wakeboard and for more advance riders to achieve better performance from their boards. Consequently, there is a need in the art for a means of improving the performance of a wakeboard.